The Number One Method to Triathlon Success - Get Out of Your Own Way

The biggest enemy to your triathlon success isn't the other guy or faulty gear; it's your own mind.

The human brain is an amazing machine.  It can do some outstanding stuff, but it can also sabotage your progress in some very spectacular ways.  How?  Well, your brain will tell you to do things when you're body is saying the opposite.  Here's some examples.

• You try to ride your bike route as fast or faster than last week, even though it's now twenty degrees hotter and you ran out of water an hour ago.  Your body is saying back off, but your ego says you're not improving if you go slower.
• Your knee is killing you, but you signed up for a marathon.  You just gotta train for it, right?  
• You want to swim with all your friends in the open water, but you once heard there's a shark somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.  

Over and over again, the brain will try to wreck good plans that your body is ready for or needs to do just to preserve it's "little self".   People find they have a lot more success in triathlon (and in life) if they quit listening to the brain and it's constant comparisons to others.  Just because Kim bought a new car or Bill drank five cups of coffee doesn't mean those things will work for you.  In fact, they will only work for you if that's what you need right now.  Chances are, they aren't.

In fact, you will find that nearly everything you do is probably because of comparisons to others (which includes yourself when you were faster/stronger/skinner/whatever).  When you are able to drop this habit and be true to yourself and feed your body and soul what it actually needs, you will be able to live and train vibrantly and with real power like you've never imagined.

When you get ready to head out on a workout, you should ask yourself how hard and how far your body needs you to go today to improve.  If you're beat from yesterday, then it's not smart to do a hard workout again today.

When you sit down to eat, you should have the self control to eat what your body needs right now.  Just because everybody else is going to an all-you-can-eat buffet doesn't mean you should, too.  

When you're getting tired at night, your body is saying it needs sleep.  Drinking a Coke or coffee to stay up later is pretty stupid when it will actually make you feel even worse tomorrow.  Your body needs sleep, so give it what it's asking for.

Comments

[TriShaman]

Coach Brett...as always...spot on! Very succinct yet catches the whole essence of ..."get our of your head and into your life" Zen Triathlon. Keep serving up the goodness!